The Order of the Stick: T-Rex, Troll Sex and Will Checks

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > The Order of the Stick: T-Rex, Troll Sex and Will Checks

«‹›2 »

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Ununnilium posted:

Anyway, yeah; basically, doing evil things for a good reason is evil, from the D&D viewpoint. From the Book of Exalted Deeds:

"Is it acceptable to tell a small lie in order to prevent a minor catastrophe? A large catastrophe? A world-shattering catastrophe?

In the D&D universe, the fundamental answer is no, an evil act is an evil act no matter what good result it may achieve."

That's a direct quote? That's weird. Wouldn't lying be a _chaotic_ act, not an inherently evil one? I'd think lying to avert the world-shattering catastrophe would be a Chaotic Good act.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2007 11:39

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 23:03

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:

. . . Says the man who apparently does not know to fear the critical fumble.

I'm... pretty sure those don't actually exist in 3.x.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2007 01:46

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Lafarga posted:

The idea is that you don't give your players a straight-up fight like they're used to. Fireballs expand to fill available space (seriously, look up the volume of a stock D&D fireball one of these days, they're loving immense)

Not in 3e. I think it just radiates out until it hits something it can't break through. Kinda a shame, since the old way let you do a lot of way more interesting things with it, but it's a LOT easier to deal with.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2007 23:14

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Gally posted:

Well Erfworld has gotten into territory I honestly don't care about at all. Shame, the strip had a good start but has failed on so many levels at this point.

Seriously, they're superdeformed little computer game people who speak in things like "Erf" and "Dwagons", why are we supposed to give a poo poo about their politics?

EDIT: Oh, and can't forget "Croakamancer" :pseudo:

# ¿ Mar 18, 2007 21:46

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Gally posted:

I think it only does that sometimes, right?

We saw it do it once, I think it's something that randomly happens when you attack rather than "Oh hey, my sword's glowing. Too bad there's no undead around."

# ¿ Mar 20, 2007 21:22

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Gumby posted:

And after a while, killing a ton of things massively lower-level than oneself results in no XP gain at all, IIRC. Stacking like 100 of them might get Belkar XP, but that sort of thing is discouraged by the DMG.

I think they changed this some in 3.5.

In 3.0, I think they left that up to common sense...

Oh, and in the monster manual? Toads were 1/10th CR. And had no attack.

Dig a hole, fill with toads, pour some oil in, light it on fire... If I remember my math correctly, you could go from 0 to level 5 or so in one shot, which then let you put more toads in without running off to the top end of the chart for your level and do it again.

In 3.5, toads and other minor critters with no attack are now CR "-", and the DMG expliticly discusses that 10,000 CR 0.1 critters are probalby not a CR 1000 encounter for a group of experinced PCs.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2007 09:27

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Ununnilium posted:

The problem is, of course, when you get people who disagree on what "common sense" means, either out of of honest confusion or out of trying to game the system. (See early Magic: The Gathering for more of this.)

Yeah. To be clear, I acutally tried to _implement_ that "hole full of toads" plan once.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2007 16:41

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

What the hell kind of strategy computer game(Man, this really reminds me of the Age of Wonders series for some reason) is he ~~playing~~ stuck in where units fully heal if you can't kill them in one turn? :psyduck:

EDIT: I mean, that does seem to be a pretty good strategy given the postulates, but it's also exaclty why units slowly heal over time in most of these games rather than fully recovering every turn.

As for what he's doing, he's using the fact that they're flying units and can't be attacked except by a limited selection of units to perform hit and run attacks on poo poo, and the "slow" dragons are shielding the central hex from anybody trying to attack, so the wounded units can avoid being attacked until the beginning of the next turn, so they're at full strength and can go out and do it again.

If I'm following it right, he's planning to take out all the enemy seige engines so they can't actually get into the city, then take out targets of opportunity before retreating back to the city.

Zereth fucked around with this message at 10:19 on May 4, 2007

# ¿ May 4, 2007 09:52

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Vanadium posted:

Then how did it not kill the entire city including Durkon and Vaarsuvius?

Are YOU going to argue with Thor about it?

# ¿ May 11, 2007 18:55

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

greatn posted:

Earlier in the thread someone mentioned you could make a cure minor wound wand with infinite charges for really cheap.

Well, I looked it up, and all the rules for creation seem to indicate wands have just 50 charges. I didn't see any rules that allow me to increases the charges up to infinite. Where is that rule located? Because I have an Aaracockra air cleric on Athas right now and if he could make an infinite charge cure minor wounds on the cheap it sure would be excellent.

Yeah, wands are defined as 50 charges. You need to find the rules for generating new/custom magic items, that includes an option for an infinite-use thing. And you'll problaby need another feat, as I think it'd technically be a Wondrous Item or maybe a Rod.

# ¿ May 30, 2007 19:02

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:

Edit: Revised opinion: the giant golem teddy bear forces CAN counterattack, but not move to pursue Parson's forces. Thus Parson's little withdraws are all being listed as victories for the good guys, who took a while to put two and two together. So Parson isn't gaining exp, but he is doing them damage and not giving them a chance to injure him back.

I think this was explained in one of the Klogs. The teddy bears can fight back if they're direclty attacked, but can't otherwise. The only things the dragons can be attacked by are other flying units and ranged units like bowmen, _and_ Parson's got it set up so nothing will ever get killed.

And the point of this exercise was to take out the collumn's seige equipment, so now they can't actually attack the city in any effective way, letting Parson pick them apart at leisure.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2007 22:59

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Taerkar posted:

Additionally the siege towers apparently do not count as units as all that was 'croaked' was a single bat unit.

I think that's just the only battle he _won_, and it was against one bat. Everything else was carefully orchestrated to take out all the seige units and any targets of opportunity without losing any "dwagons" ( :doh:

)

God, I wish he'd just drop all the cutsey poo poo and the lol internet refernces, becuase the underying plot is somewhat interesting, but HEY TEDDY BEARS THAT'S FUNNY RIGHT :downsrim:

# ¿ Jun 18, 2007 23:29

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Ashcans posted:

I still think that Erfworld would be irritating and too much effort to enjoy, in a sort of GPF way, but dropping all that would make it much better. The goofy references could be alright if they were few and far between, and reasonably done. OotS actually does this pretty well, when the characters break the fourth wall (kinda) to talk about game mechanics or acknowledge they're in a 'plot'. Erfworld just does it really badly, and uses horrible and outdated references anyway. As it is I only ever read a strip because someone mentions it in this thread, and then I want to punch him in the head.

Yeah, it seems to be based off thigns like Heros of might and Magic, Age of Wonders, and Master of Magic, which I really like, so I can understand all the tactical stuff almost instnatly. (although, as I mentioned some ways back, the wya the world is set up seems rather... odd.)

Halloween Jack posted:

So basically, his troops attack, then run away from the fight before they can get counterattacked?

I don't think it's that, but that they're flying units which can't be attacked unless they attack first in most circumstances, so he's using that to take out all the seige equipment at little risk to his forces.

No seige equipment means that huge army outside the city walls are now useless. So until they build and transport more, which will take a long time, he can concentrate his resources on the guys trying to get in through the underground route.

Davethulhu posted:

A column is a collection of units stationed together in the same "hex" (Parson calls this a "stack").

I think the "column" is acutally a bunch of stacks along the road. A typical number of units per "stack" for this sort of game is 8 or 10, while he took out 50-odd seige weapons this turn.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2007 01:23

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Robot Bastard posted:

Looks like Erfworld is going for the "Jacob's Ladder" ending.

Except the main character doesn't have any idea what's going on, and we saw his gaming group sitting around going "what the hell" for a ocuple of panels after he disappeared in the beginning.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2007 14:26

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Potsticker posted:

Yeah, I'm glad too. But, I don't see how it's going towards that scenario considering he blipped out in front of his friends on-panel. Unless the whole day for him has been a hallucination or whatever, but that just seems like it would be lovely writing.

Oh.

Particularly lovely writing as he seemed unaware of the events after the blipping, with his "friends" sitting around going "what the gently caress?".

# ¿ Dec 6, 2007 07:37

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

The Werle posted:

I'll defend Melf's acid arrow til the end of time. Color spray can be dang handy too.

Aren't those First-level spells, not 0th level?

# ¿ Dec 14, 2007 09:57

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

MikeJF posted:

Except the part where the rules say a gross violation of the code will cause a Paladin to lose his powers. Allowing for, say, non-gross violations in there somewhere?

Especially in situations where no matter what you do you're going to be violating some part of your code, and you're stuck choosing the lesser evil, like O-Chul was here. ("don't lie" and "help those in need" conflicting, and I'd say any gods that hold him to the "don't lie" over "help those in need" aren't Good.)

# ¿ Apr 8, 2008 21:03

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

IMJack posted:

It got me to thinking; in this strip, Miko doesn't ping the monster as evil (before it puts her and her horse through the wall). Either it really isn't evil, or Miko (or Burlew) didn't think to Detect Evil on it.

It doesn't have her yelling "detect evil" or the eye-beam effect, so it looks like she didn't use it. She was in a hurry.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2008 19:41

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Schwarzwald posted:

Did the floating mouth appear before now?

That's the kobold Oracle's place.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2008 06:58

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

That is the best name for a village ever.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2008 04:47

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

ShadowCatboy posted:

Yes yes yes YES! I knew it!

Man this comic would've really sucked without that witty smack-talking oracle.

I'd have to think that the memory enchantment wouldn't affect Roy. As a ghost he exists partially on the ethereal plane... if fireballs and such can't affect him, neither should the memory thing.

He can also get out without traveling through the boundaries of the effect and triggering it.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2008 03:33

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

ShadowCatboy posted:

Hmmmm... now that I think about it, how did those lizard people go in and out, presumably without triggering the memory charm? Does it only kick in when you cross the line? Sounds like quite a hole in the Oracle's defenses.

The wizard cast Teleport? EDIT: Or I suppose he might have been a sorcerer, or some other arcane caster, or female.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2008 07:41

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

tazman posted:

Am I wrong in this or just overthinking way way too much? (Or is Elan just Neutral Good?)

I'm pretty sure Elan's supposed to be Chaotic Good.

But yes, killing a (more or less) helpless prisoner who's surrendered isn't very Good either.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2008 09:46

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Yes, but remember Belkar's conversation with Maybe Shojo. Old Belkar would just murder them.

New Belkar? He might talk them down so he can get surprise attacks in.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2008 12:31

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

I've always interpreted it as V's "player" (not that the world seems to include them) never bothered filling out the Gender entry on the character sheet and is just refusing to at this point.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2009 05:25

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Shyrka posted:

Considering the dragon would have teleported right on top of V's family, they're probably already dead in the time it took for that conversation with the imp.

Of course not, talking is a free action! You can spend hours debating strategy in the middle of a turn!

# ¿ Feb 13, 2009 02:38

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Pope Guilty posted:

What of it?

E: Are you getting at the idea that he shouldn't have access to spell slots that high? Look at it this way. V is operating on V's caster levels, plus those of the three souls spliced with his. Let's be conservative and say that those uber-powerful casters were 15th level each;

Didn't the coalition state they were all Epic-level spellcasters?

Cabbit posted:

He used Disjunction to counter the Anti-Magic Field; Disintegrate was used to, you know, try and disintegrate the dragon. Or his family, maybe; we won't know until we get a zoom out on and see whatever it was he targeted.

He was aiming the Disintegrate in the same direction as the Disjunction.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2009 23:16

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

ZorbaTHut posted:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether I'd want these axes to be a collection of nonlinear options or points on a line.

Clearly it has to be a collection of nonlinear options arbitrarily assigned points on a line.

# ¿ May 6, 2009 00:01

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

bartolimu posted:

I'm pretty much loving Xykon too. I think we've seen his Epic Spell though - Maximized Energy Drain. That's about as mean as anything I've seen a GM do.

New question: is V responsible for damages to the spliced souls? With each one being returned (at least) twelve levels weaker than they were loaned out, I think the fiends could make a legitimate claim. That's far beyond the normal wear and tear one would associate with a normal rental.

Aren't Epic Spells and greater-than-level-9 slots separate issues?

# ¿ May 11, 2009 23:34

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

crime fighting hog posted:

Okay this one flew right over my head.

Party: Boy we sure are reminiscing about stuff.
Elan: And remember that time you found the guys my party is looking for?
Elan: No?
Elan: Oh well next table.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2010 18:10

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Bow2Gaijin posted:

The only thing that could make this better is if a surprise thunderstorm springs up during their fight.

Tarquin is clearly going to send for some wizards/clerics to provide one.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2010 17:17

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Pope Guilty posted:

Challenging Tarquin isn't smart, it's dramatic.

And as such his prestige class probably gives him huge bonuses in this situation.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2010 18:53

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

CapnAndy posted:

Things are obviously coming to a head here. Haley sent those first two guards to the palace; Tarquin is going to know exactly what's going on the second they show up and I guarantee you his Sense Motive scores are as astronomical as Haley's Bluff. She won't be able to lie her way past him.

No, that's the thing about Glibness. The bonus you get to your Sense Motive to see through a completely blatantly false lie, like "The sky is green" when the blue sky is in your field of view, is +20.

Glibness gives you a +30 to Bluff rolls to lie.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2011 18:34

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Spiderdrake posted:

I mean D&D is almost exclusively portrayed as up close and personal, relationship driven hack and slash fantasy, more akin to Conan than Tolkien. You're using high fantasy differently from what appears to be the more common usage of the term, which is what I was responding to.

Well, when you're solving the problems of an entire continent by putting a god in a headlock I'm not sure that qualifies as "up close and personal" anymore.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2011 03:13

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Iggy Johnson posted:

Wow. I'd almost rather an Alignment debate over this Update Debate. God drat.

So is updating irregularly Chaotic? :v:

# ¿ Jul 20, 2011 11:09

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Poil posted:

Cantrips offer such power as dealing a d3 of damage or healing a hit point. Yes, healing a hit point.

Which is enough to stabilize a dying person, I believe.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2011 11:35

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

KaLogain posted:

Did you read the page? It is a kick starter group to print the War and XPs book, basically a kind of pre-order. Plus extra stuff, and you can pay more for some extra things.

You don't actually get the book until the $45 donation level.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2012 08:18

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Zore posted:

And True Necromancer is a terrible prestige class for that reason, you're only going to hit level 7 and 6 spells and only a few of them. Most of the worthwhile undead raising spells are high level too, especially things that let you revive powerful humanoids or many hitdie monsters. Mystic Theurge will let you hit level 9 on one side easily and on both sides with minor shenanigens.

On the other hand you lose everything other than spellcasting progression. Your undead turning ability will stagnate and become useless, and as Redcloak has just shown that's pretty handy. It's even useful for supporting your own already-controlled undead in some situations.

If you really have to have both full arcane and divine spellcasting what you want to do is somehow cheat the entry requirements for the Beholder Mage prestige class, which is only available to beholders but gives you DOUBLE spellcasting progression. Yes, one level of it gives you the equivalent of two levels of a spellcasting class. (Because being a Beholder at all means you're fairly high level to start, so if they're ever going to get the high-level spells they need to cheat like this.)

# ¿ Jan 25, 2012 21:19

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Mostly I just wanted to bring up the very :psyduck:

Beholder Mage PrC.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2012 23:24

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 23:03

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

MikeJF posted:

they all have either a series of cuts or runes on their bodies. Hrmm.

Like the ones the original Draketooth did when he was alive?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2012 07:45

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > The Order of the Stick: T-Rex, Troll Sex and Will Checks

«‹›2 »